Within the Colombian economy, agriculture is considered one of the economic
sectors more profitable
and
solids
,
and
this one
is
the
opportunity to develop new
fields of operation. The practice of the
“
helicicultura
”
is developed under t
his
economic sector, activity that is defined as the
raise
of snails with productive aims.
The constant gro
wth of the demand by
European countries is one of the reasons
by which it is attractive to develop to this activity in Colombia, added to this the
c
ompetitive advantages of the country given by his g
eographic position and
weather.
From
the
Law 1011 of 2006, the Colombian government decides to support the
operation of this activity, by means of which he authorizes themselves and he
regulates, generatin
g therefore the opportunity to formalize the sector and to
stimulate the producers to make investments in nontraditional products.
At the moment the production is in low levels due
to the disadvantages
displayed
during the approval of the decree that auth
orizes the export. In this process they
play a fundamental role the Ministry of Agriculture, the Atmosphere Ministry, House
and social Development and the Ministry of Social Protection, that must work with
base in their policies and objectives and are the
ones in charge to authorize the
approval
of
the
respective decree.
As
consequence to this situation, in
the country
does not exists
registries of
exports,
either
commercial experiences of the practice of the
“
helicicultura
”
with the
European market
by th
e
producers.
However,
the
experience in Latin America
mainly in Argentina and Chile show to the excellent results of the exports of snails
to Europe, generating great expectations for the Colombian producers.
Within the European Union, Spain has had an imp
ortant growth in its imports of the
snail and their derivatives in the last years, reason for which it has been decided to
focus this investigation to this country. Colombia counts on commercial
agreements with the European Community that
allow him
greate
r facility in the
access of merchandise and tariff
items preferences
. In relation to the tariff
item
that
makes reference to the
alive
snail, Colombia counts on the advantage to enter the
Spanish market with 0% of tariff, which is an incentive to more carr
y out exporting
plans.